Hacking In
by DashAway
Summary: A hacker has been causing trouble, and the NSA would love to have them on their side. Xander Cage is sent to fetch this hacker, who isn't going to come so easily and definately isn't what they seem.
1. Default Chapter

Hacking In

A xXx Story

By Dash

Okay, I guess I should say that I don't own anything about xXx unless it's not something you recognise from the movie. It's not like it was ever a book, right? Yeah. So I'm just telling you that I will never again include a disclaimer in this story. If you've read it once I think that's enough. I don't like being told I don't own my favourite movies or characters and I certainly don't like to write it over and over. I HAVE SPOKEN.

So....on with the story, aiight dawgs? note: I won't post again till I get one review

The familiar rhythm of beeping blended perfectly with the Linkin Park music blaring throughout the room. The sound of typing was faint but present, and the fingers moved like blurs across the keys. Misty blue eyes scanned the screen and a few mouse clicks joined the plague of noise.

"Come on you piece of shit," urged a voice through clenched teeth and a hand gave the computer a smart whack. Hacking wasn't as easy as it was cracked up to be. The hacker growled loudly as this fact made itself evident. "Damn you all to hells." There were thousands, no, millions of codes that could fit here. And they had to narrow it down to one. What they needed to do was notch it down to ten or less numbers. Then she could make random combinations and eventually get in.

The only thing driving them on was the fact that this was one of her biggest jobs yet. The pay would be enormous; high in the billions. This particular company had to be brought down, not only because of the money but because of what they'd done.

They made credit cards, and even had their own bank. But the cards were scams and often the owner was ripped off of all they had. Everyday, another hacker would get their pay by going through and sucking out about $100 from every card.

The one breaking into them right now had fallen victim to this company back when they were 18 and stupid. They were now 19, but the one year difference may as well have been ten. They were a different person now and had proved it many times.

The computer clicked in objection to the commands and it was hit again. "Come on..." Finally the screen announced that she had gotten in. "You bastards!" they said, smiling as they read over the code. "3478556924675." They laughed. "So easy a child could have guessed it."

Her fingers moved even faster as the easy part started. Quickly, they formulated withdrawals and typed in addresses. The computer began deleting off the list of profits, finally ending at $0.00. The money was sent to their account now as well as the accounts of a few others. Turning back to the screen, they completed the job. With the click of the mouse, the virus was sent, imitating the profits that had been deleted and making it hard to trace. Well not hard, but nearly impossible.

The job was now done and sleep could come now. Going to the bed, they stopped by the window and looked out at downtown Buffalo New York, their home. The snow outside was so beautiful, and the city lights were the icy fireflies that completed the scene. Outside it was about -15 degrees. Inside it was about 60. They liked it cold. They opened the window and walked over to the bed. Falling onto the sheets, sleep held itself until at last mist fell over their mind.


	2. Sent to Fetch

Chapter two, hooray! I won't post another until I get AT LEAST three reviews, and I'll just let you know that I will raise it two reviews every chapter so I can keep this up. If you want chapter four then you will have to give me five and it's seven for chapter five, and so on.

Anyway, I know the chapters are sort of short, it's just I've already written a good deal of the story and it progresses pretty quick. Baisically I'm trying to suck out a few more chapters than I really should. So, since we've gotten my exploitation plan out of the way, I suggest you read the story so I don't have time to rant about The Man or communists. Or marketing scandals. Or lemon intolerance. Or octopus abuse. Or lobster sweatshops, or my new online college, Pigeon Online. Yeah you better go read, if you know what's good for your mental health.

One Week Later

"It happened again!"

"We have to stop it!"

"What are we going to do?"

"What _can_ we do?"

"Where the hell is my sandwich?"

The hurried and frantic agents paced about the room, growing ever more frustrated. This was the fifth virus report this month, and it was all the same virus. Of course they knew who was dong it. It was the location that got them. They couldn't find any fragment of evidence that this person even existed. But he _did_, and everyday he could make another move.

These agents, though, did not want to stop the hacker. They wanted to catch him and meld him into the agency. They had caught many other criminals and used them in their missions. Why? Because they were programmable, expendable, and they work. Often they were the ones who knew what really mattered, as opposed to law-abiding citizens. Trustworthy they were; all the murderers, car boosters, vandals and average crooks. All fighting against The Man. The Man is tearing down the Amazon. The Man is destroying the ozone layer. The Man kidnapped Shamoo and put her in a chlorine tank. There used to be a way to stick it to the man. It was called rock and roll. But The Man ruined that too with a little thing called MTV. So don't try to put anything good or pure or awesome in the world, cuz the man's just gonna call you a fat, washed up loser and crush your soul. (AN: in case you didn't notice, this is The Man speech from School of Rock. Needless to say it doesn't belong to me...)

Oh how many times agent Gibbons had heart hat speech, he didn't know. He was the leader of the agency, the one who presented the criminal idea in the first place. Most of the people he picked up gave him an attitude until they eventually learned their place. And that place was a heroic one. It was like a child growing up; all kinds of new responsibilities.

Gibbons was by no means a man to cross. He wasn't particularly big, but his face had the expression of a hardened war vet. He was indeed a war vet; bearing a burn scar on his left cheek. As one of his recruits said to him, he was reminded of how fucked up this country is every time he looked in the mirror, though not in those exact words. The fact that most of the criminals didn't really like America didn't deter him and often he ignored their comments. He had pride in his country, and all the recruits had pride in themselves. Maybe they really did know what mattered more; you know, credit given where credit is due, but Gibbons certainly wasn't going to change his opinions.

Anyway, this hacker could really be useful to the agency and Gibbons was willing to go to any lengths to find him. He didn't even know what they looked like or where they lived. All he had was a name. Nikolai. He vowed to find this Nikolai and use him for important purposes.

Was the agency The Man too? It was kind of hard to say. But what was for certain was that they had brought down hundreds of opposing organizations and they wre doing it their way. As the same recruit mentioned before said, "Don't act all patrol cop, think PlayStation, blow shit up!"

Whoever Nikolai was, he certainly couldn't act by conventional methods and that was just what Gibbons was looking for. A few agents rushed up to him suddenly, waking him from his strategizing reverie.

"Sir!" they said breathlessly, "We got it! We got the location!"

"Xander, you're going to need to be careful you know."

"What is this shit Gibbons? Careful? Since when have I ever been _careful_?"

"Well you're not dead yet, are you?" the black man responded, staring at the dark eyed agent. Xander didn't reply. His shaved head gleamed slightly in the glow of the futuristic lighting. The strong right blue light ran down his heavily muscled arms, which were just as large as the muscles bulging out of his white tank. He sighed in his deep, rumbling voice and looked the other way. It wasn't in self-defeat but in annoyance at Gibbons. It was hard to tell which overpowered the other.

"X, I know you never really listen to me but I'm going to tell you again. BE. FUCKIN. CAREFUL."

"Whatever you say." Xander replied, standing up. Gibbons stood too and together they headed for the door. Gibbons handed X the address and bid him a final farewell.

"Hey, X" he called after the built white man. X turned. "Give my regards to Yelena." X nodded shortly and entered his precious car. Yelena was his girlfriend who he'd acquired while working his first case. Yelena was tied up in a mess involving a mass bomb. She had been undercover when her agency reformed and forgot about her. So she stayed in the mix of things for two more years before X found her. She wanted out and X disobeyed orders to help her. After a brief vacation in the Caribbean, they both returned to America. Yelena became a scientist, unwilling to continue a career as an agent. Now Xander rarely saw her and they were starting to drift apart. He would do anything to keep her but her bond to him wasn't as strong. Sure she had depended on him back when she was in deep, but after awhile she became much more independent.

X despised that. He wanted her—plain and simple. Her Russian accent, her slim body, her roughly pretty face, her innocent eyes and her not-so-innocent attitude. She didn't like to see people die, no. but if she had to kill, she would. He liked that in a person; the ability to do what you have to do when it has to be done.

Yelena was currently living in New York City. Xander was by the NSA base on Mt. Weather Virginia. Usually he wasn't there long, but sent out on missions. But none of those missions could match what he had grown to call the "Silent Night" case.

Now as Xander drove he tried not to thing about anything else but his current mission. Operation: capture hacker. He looked over at the computer installed in his dashboard which was currently flashing random information on the hacker.

"Nikolai, eh? Sounds like a pansy." X grumbled as he read glanced of the overview. Apparently Nikolai had just become active half a year ago and had taken down a few companies, all of which had a record of scams. That's why Gibbons wanted him so badly. X was actually hoping Nikolai _wasn't_ a pansy. Maybe the hacker would be a kick ass person to hand out with. Maybe he liked cars and stunts and video games. Or maybe Nikolai was a computer nerd who made himself out to be more than he was. Maybe he was older than X, which was most likely. Even young geniuses would have problems getting into the company mainframes.

The tattooed white man turned back to the road. "K," he muttered, "Gonna bring this bastard in then call Yelena. She damn well better be there if she knows what's good for her."


	3. Chet

Alright, I'm going to start this chapter off by responding to my reviewers. First response goes to Lena, who asked if this was a Yelena x Xander pairing. Well it's not. Second response goes to Arc. Thanks for reviewing and I'm trying to type quickly so you can read this before your mom gets home. Bad you. Last response goes to the person that reviewed both my past chapters. Sorry I don't remember your name, but you know who you are. So, let's get this rolling. Oh and fyi I don't hate Yelena. In fact, I love her. But this story isn't about her, it's about the hacker. The first part of this chapter focuses slightly on her but it recovers over time. K. Now that that's done...

Yelena had been on his mind forever. She was a big problem in his life right now. The agency was annoying but he could handle them, and other than that he didn't have any money or living problems, so Yelena was the one dilemma he could not solve. Xander hated having problems he couldn't solve, because he couldn't go to anyone either. He didn't want to lose his image. Xander, the sarcastic joker; Xander, the rock. Xander, the man who has no problems and for whom life is always dandy. Riight.

Gods, problems annoyed him. This thought drugged out his mood and the last of his happiness drained away as he pulled into the driveway of a run-down apartment building. The walls were red brick and the doors were painted with brown paint. The paint was so old it was peeling in many places. The walkways were covered in trash and dried gum, and as far as Xander could tell, the windows were so dirty you might not even be able to see through them.

There was only a small alley on one side of the building and on the other side there was only the next structure. The whole place was cramped and dirty, and he could hardly believe a deadly hacker lived here. And this was Buffalo New York! Why would someone with a name so obviously Russian live here? X had been around a lot of Russians during the Silent Night case and he was used to them. He would have been more comfortable in some Russian country.

Trudging up the front walk, he glanced at the index card that held the apartment information. He punched in the numbers on the panel by the door. He wasn't planning on leaping in through the window and acting as a one man sweep team. He would befriend Nikolai first. That technique had worked before and he was willing to try it again. Hell, last time he even got a hot girl out of the deal.

The intercom page flew through electrical wires into a dingy apartment room. There, it fell, empty and unanswered. X turned to the door and realized that it was beat up enough that one swift kick would open it. After accomplishing the easy task, Xander inspected the inside of the building. It was dirty but not as bad as he expected. There was simply a flight of stairs in front of him and at his feet, a dusty blue floor mat rested. The staris creaked in protest as he climbed them to the top. There he cf0ound the door, the number of which matching his card.

He knocked. The sound filled the space then faded. A creak revealed the that the door was opening. Xander looked and saw it was open a tiny crack.

"Go away." A voice said, flat and mildly deep.

"You ever heard of a Nikolai?" X asked.

"No," they replied.

"You sure? What's yer name kid?"

"None of your business," they responded, about to close the door. Xander caught the handle and yanked it open, causing whoever was at the door to sprawl at his feet. Grabbing their shirt, he pulled them to their feet. It was a boy no older than 17 or 18. his face was oval shaped and his eyes were a misty blue. He wore big blue jeans that were at least two sizes too big, and an olive green old navy hat was backwards over his sandy blond hair. He looked twitchy and incredibly nervous. Next to Xander though, he was a decent height, not as tall as the man but not too far off.

"I said what's your name kid?" Xander demanded, letting go of the boy's Linkin Park t-shirt.

"Chet," the boy said, trying to clear his voice.

"Okay Chet, well I got this address for a guy named Nikolai who apparently has some kick ass computer equipment. I've got money for it but man, I guess I got the wrong place."

"You wanna buy computer stuff?" Chet asked anxiously, making Xander smile inwardly. This was the 'opening up' period he liked so much.

"Yeah,"

"Well Nikolai isn't in right now but if you give me a list I can get back to you."

"List, eh?" Xander said, then pointed to his head. "List is all in here kid, guess I'm outta luck."

"I can get you something to write it on." Chet said a little flatly.

"Yeah," was the answer. Chet carefully slid through the door and into the room, which was so dark it wouldn't have mattered. X stood patiently, trying to think of some awesome computer shit to ask for. He knew computers just as well as cars. His knowledge also covered instruments, sports equipment, guns, TV's, video games and the easiest and most fun ways to kill a human. That part he learned form being an agent back at Mt. Weather. He didn't use the techniques much; after all, he wasn't a killing machine.

The kid came back out and handed X paper and a pen. Xander put the paper on the wall and began to compile a list of computer parts. When he finished, he handed it back over to Chet, who took it and looked it over.

"Million kilobytes a minute, huh? Nice and fast. The modem won't be so easy but the programs will be a snap." Chet said, approving the selection.

"Yeah, I'm sure Nikolai can find this stuff. Got the world at his fingertips, you know/" He gestured to the bottom of the paper. "This is your number?"

"Yeah. You get back to me, aiight?"

"Yeah," Chet nodded and ducked back into the room. X stood there and thought about some things for a moment before finally heading out.

The kid, Chet, wasn't Nikolai. That much was for sure. X had considered it but a great hacker wouldn't be so jumpy or clumsy, although X didn't know why he would have an assistant either. Xander got into his car drove off, his thoughts turning to Yelena.

The phone rang. It had already rung twice. A snow white hand hovered over the receiver, while the mind attached to it debated whether or not to pick it up. Yelena chewed her lip. "Pick it up, tell him it's over." "No, he'll eventually get it, he'll go away. Xander isn't the kind to hold on to the impossible." "Pick it up!" "Don't!"

She didn't. Soon the phone stopped ringing and Yelena threw herself against her chair. She rubbed head and forced back a scream. She wanted to scream so badly, just in defeat.

Big, strong arms encircled her neck and soft lips kissed the side of her face. "This sure is hard on you."

"Yes," she agreed, letting her boyfriend sweep her up and hold her.

Xander listened to the phone ring ten times before taking his cell and slamming it shut. "Fuck." He muttered and drove back to his hotel.


	4. A little late night chat

Downtown Buffalo was beautiful at night. Even here, in the slums, the lights of the building were like fires lighting the snow around them. Xander's breath condensed then dissipated in front of him as he trudged up the ice covered walkway.

He was there to search the apartment of Chet. His suspicions about the kid led him to do this tonight. Even to himself he admitted that he should have waited a few more nights, but his anger at Yelena drove to do something. That same anger coured through his veins right now, causing his fingers to twitch slightly.

Opening the door silently as possible was hard, considering that it was broken and rusted. He figured he might as well get it over with and charged the door. It opened grumpily, protesting at him in the form of a short but loud squeak. Carefully he slipped in and made his way up the stairs, which seemed ten times creakier then they had that morning. When he finally reached Chet's door, he pulled out a simple hair pin and began picking the lock the way he learned way back in the day. Gibbons didn't really care that he used such kindergarten methods, in fact, it was quite the opposite. Xander quietly came in to find the room was completely dark but for the lights of dozens of machines. X's ears perked up to hear any sound that wasn't beeping. He heard the faint drone of a radio and the electric waves of a T.V.

Xander knew he would have to search for people first; just to be sure he was alone. He followed the sound of the waves into a very small room. The TV was on a plastic cabinets to his left and there wasn't anything on it except the blank 'no service' blue screen. X turned to his right and a jolt lit through his stomach. There was someone in the bed. They were sleeping and their face was turned toward him.

X moved carefully, his tight black outfit allowing him to move quietly. The person in the bed was Chet. What blew X's mind was that Chet had really long hair. Really long WAVY hair of a golden colour. He looked down and realized what Chet was wearing. From what he could see, it was a white tank and boxer shorts. But Xander could see, by looking at Chet's chest, that he was a she.

_Why didn't I notice that before? _Xander thought, wondering how some girl managed to pull this off.

She turned in her sleep and exposed a black cat collar on her neck. Xander leaned over and looked at what was written on the silver tag. "Nikolai" it read. "You belong to Nikolai?" Xander said softly, getting up and going back to the main room. He inspected the computers for awhile, finding nothing out of the ordinary. There was a bulletin board with his list tacked to it, some of the items were already checked off.

Xander dug through some papers on a desk, finding a few multiplication and division problems hurriedly scratched out. The figures were large_, Like money_. X turned over a few more, also finding extensive notes on something. Reading into it, he saw they were complicated configurations about mainframes. Below were a few names and amounts underneath them. He folded and pocketed it. _This is definitely Nikolai's place,_ X thought, getting up again and finding other papers to search.

Suddenly a glint to his right made him turn. The shine came from the green light of a computer and it was reflected on silver. Silver attached to a knife. A knife gripped in someone's hand. Chet's hand. Xander hurriedly whipped out a magnum, pointing it directly between Chet's eyes.

"You didn't think I felt you touching me, did you?" X didn't answer. "What are you doing here?"

"I got a better question. What are _you_ doing here?"

"This is my apartment bastard, get the hells out!"

"Let's talk first."

"We are prepared to defend ourselves to the grave, Mr. Cage, don't trifle with us."

"How do you know my name?" Xander asked apprehensively.

"Shut the hells up!" Chet cried, her voice taking on an uncharacteristic drop. "Leave us!"

"Why do you keep sayin 'us' and 'we'?!" Asked X as though she were insane. "There's only...one of you, right?" The last statement was meant to be sarcastic and mocking.

"Of course not," she snapped back, her voice now sounding slightly British. "Looks may be deceiving, Xander; just because a person _appears_ as one doesn't mean they _are_ one."

_Great_. He spat to himself. _The bitch has MPD._

"Now, Mr. Cage, we bid you farewell. If you don't accept our goodbyes, we will have to take drastic measures."

"You punk of a kid, put the knife down!" The muscled agent was getting sick and tired of the shit he was hearing.

"Why should we?" Chet's voice became higher pitched. "You should put the gun down." Her pale lips parted and Xander noticed an odd placement in her teeth that made it look as though she had bottom fangs.

"Look, I just wasn't sure if I cold really trust you to do my list," Xander answered, reverting back to his 'innocent' act. He lowered the magnum but still kept it at ready. Chet's cloudy blue eyes glared at him as if daring him to come any closer. Xander put up a hand in slight surrender.

"You can trust me with anything, Xander; you didn't have to break into my apartment at three in the morning. And now you know my secret. I guess I'll have to kill you." She gripped the knife tighter and raised it. Instantaneously, X raised his gun and a serious look flew across his face, clouding his eyes. Suddenly, low, dangerous laughter filled his ears and one thought rang through his head. _What...?_

Chet was laughing. She tucked the knife into the band of her boxer shorts. "Kidding, Xander, kidding." Xander lowered his magnum again, now feeling a little, well actually a lot, pissed off. Chet moved forward and into better light. Now Xander felt foolish for not noticing he was a she. Her legs were long and feminine, as were her arms. The long, golden brown strands of her hair must have must pulled under the hat she was wearing. The contour of her face was very long and oval, and her lips formed a forlorn pout only a woman could achieve. When her sizeable chest was added on top of all that, Xander felt pretty stupid.

"How could I not have noticed?"

"You notice anything, right?"

"Anything and everything." He said with a small smirk.

"Xander, when you put on your little black cat suit, doesn't it make you feel different from being in, oh say, a business suit? It's a form of glamouring; making yourself adjust in attitude to what's going on around you. When I'm not wearing my jeans, hat, and shirt, I can be as girly as I want. When I'm in those jeans though, I'm a dude. A dude who doesn't shave, wears Old Spice, eats crap, doesn't exercise and will do anything besides work."

"Glamouring, huh?"

"Yeah." Chet answered simply, heading towards the kitchen. Xander followed her in and glanced around the dark room.

"Don't you have any lights in this place?"

"One, but it's broken. I don't really like bright light, and you can see." She gestured to the thick blankets she had thrown over the window. Xander could barely see them, but suddenly a bright light shone in his eyes. Chet had a flashlight in her hand. X put his own hand over his face and the beam lowered.

"You want something to eat?"

"What you got?"

"Not much. Ramen noodles, marshmallows, apples, instant breakfast, watermelon and frosting."

"Frosting?"

"Strait from the can my friend. I dunno about you but I'm having some instant breakfast."

"I'll pass." Chet shrugged and pulled a packet out of the box. A faint puff came from the powder as she poured it into a glass. "Hey, you wanna get some milk outta the fridge for me?" Xander opened the fridge and saw some random bottles of juice and at least half a dozen frosting cans. At the bottom were a few bottles of Bacardi.

"Are you old enough to drink?" he asked.

"What? Oh, the Bacardi. Yeah. Well, actually, no. But seriously, it's not like I have a car to crash and I hardly leave this place."

"Does Nikolai make you stay?" asked Xander in a low voice. She kept her composure.

"You could say that. Milk?"

"Oh, sorry." He handed her the carton. She poured it into the glass and stirred.

"You're welcome to the Bacardi." She said out of the blue.

"No, that's....aiight. So you work on your free time or you got a real job?"

"This is my job. I get stuff for people when Nikolai can't. Nikolai...I don't really know what he does but he comes back with money so I don't complain."

"He your boyfriend?" Chet snorted.  
"Hardly. Even if he was, I still would ask about the money."

"You don't care?" She shook her head no and impatiently brushed her hair out of her face. "So what _is _you're relationship with him?"

"Employee. He treats me with respect but I'm still not as good as him."

"Does he live here?"

"If he's got nowhere else to...why am I answering all these questions?"

"Because I'm asking you them."

"Why do you want to know so much?"

"Because I've got you doing errands for me and I don't know much about you."

"That's why you broke in in the first place, eh? I really gotta get a new lock on that damn door."

"Yeah, you might wanna do that."

"So, Xander, tell me about yourself. What do you do besides stunts and revenge?" Xander grinned.

"Ah, you know about that?"

"How did you think I knew you're name?" He shrugged. "I'm a video game junkie, so I get exposure to that kind of stuff. I've heard of you through other game obsessed people."

"I never knew I was that famous." X said, feigning surprise. Chet grinned wolfishly.

"Ask any respectable business man and he'll despise you. Ask someone like me or Niko and we'll fall down and shine your shoes."

"Maybe it's good that I don't come in contact with those classy stiffs."

"Maybe. So, you didn't answer my question...."

"What do I do? You know, sell shit, buy shit..."

"Drugs?" asked Chet with a raised eyebrow.

"Naw, that stuff is crap. I put stuff together, like those parts I asked for. I'm building some high quality equipment for a friend."

"Don't waste those parts Xander, most of them are freakin hard to find." She took a long sip of her drink and looked away.

"Hey, I just realized something. Before, you changing personalities. But now you're not." He said, dropping into his 'interrogating suspects' voice. Chet laughed.

"Yeah, that happens when I get too angry to keep myself together. But they keep me company and help me with internal conflicts. I'm not complaining. Hey, I got some of your stuff here already."

"Give it to me later, with the rest." She nodded.

"I'm gonna go now." Xander stated, and she followed him to the door.

"Oh, by the way, my name's Laila Halliday. My _real _name, that is." They shook hands.

"Aiight, cool. You know how to reach me if you need me." Laila nodded. "Good. Hey, uh, before I go, I got one more question. I'm dyin to meet Nikolai, do you know where he is?"

"Can't tell you, Xander. I know two ways to successfully preserve a sneaky business. Number one; never tell them all you know." And she shut the door behind him.

Laila sank to the ground and started to shake violently. _Why did he do that? What if we hadn't woken up?_

_I don't know but we have to be more careful!_

_Do we believe him...?_

_I don't know...he seems natural enough._

_Maybe so but he seemed pretty interested in Niko._

_Well who wouldn't be? We know full well that Nikolai is an interesting person._

_He is, after all, a part of the underground. It's no wonder that Xander knows who Niko is. _

_But..._

_But what? He's heard of Niko and knew he could get some pretty sweet stuff._

_He is pretty popular and I'm sure he doesn't need Nikolai to..._

_That's just it! He has too much else to do so he got someone to do it for him._

_He's come a long way._

_That he has. It says he really, truly wants to meet Nikolai._

_Then we'll just have to introduce them._

__

Man, I am such a procrastinator. How long has it been, over a month maybe, since I updated? I have written up to chapter seven, so I hope this goes much faster from now on. Sorry about the wait. Let me know if it wasn't worth it or if this story needs to stop. Hell, if it does, it's just one less thing I have to worry about.


	5. Niko's Ultimatum

"Xander, report." Gibbons demanded.

"Well, I went to the apartment and found out some pretty interesting stuff." Xander reached into the pocket of his leather pants and fished out a bulging bunch of folded paper. Feeding it into the scanner of his laptop, he looked up at his commander. "This stuff definitely proves that this girl is involved in something other than just computer parts. She's also got a direct connection to Nikolai."

"She? I thought you said it was a teenage boy," the hard eyes of Gibbons glared up at him in a manner suggesting that X had made a stupid mistake.

"Naw, apparently, he's a she. Her name's Laila, Laila...Halliday, that's it. I'm gonna run a background check on her later."

"Good." Replied Gibbons, who was now looking over the newly scanned papers. They were some things he snitched from the apartment before he was caught. Gibbons turned away for a moment to type something in on another computer. "Apparently, these figures match some of those that were lost in recent hackings. Is there anything else you have?" Xander gave him a quick description of what the visit was like; how Laila acted, what the apartment looked like, things like that. "Alright then, X, that's all good and dandy, but it isn't the best you can do. I want you to go in deeper, much deeper than this. You've visited the site, which is great, but I need you to get so close that you can meet Nikolai. But don't do it all in one fell swoop, alright? Do some things with Laila first, I don't even care if you pretend to like her. Just do what you have to do to get closer." The men traded a nod and signed off.

Xander immediately began a search for her on the government database that was installed in his computer. He went up to the search box and typed 'Halliday, Laila.' There was a little magnifying glass circling over a folder in the typical searching animation, and finally it disappeared to reveal...nothing. NO DATA FOUND. The screen taunted him with these words. "Okay..." he said, and began to try another name. But he stopped short when he realized that he didn't have a last name for her 'Chet' alias, so that was bound to fail as well. Various attempts to respell her name also came up dead-ended.

Finally X decided to screw the database and use his old pal, Google. If any search engine knew what was going on in the underground, Google did. He typed in her name. Nothing but crap. He typed in her name with the word 'computer parts' included. One link, but it was just for a computer part store somewhere in Kentucky. Backspacing over the last two words, he rewrote 'hacker' in their place. Six sites came up. The first one he clicked was a site called , and Xander laughed as he searched their sections on '_How to build a bomb'_ and their weapons storehouse. It was all completely accurate. Finally, he stopped messing around and clicked on their folder labeled '_Hackers_'. There was a list of names, some of which were highlighted as links.

About three fourths of the way down the lineup, he saw _LAILA HALLIDAY_ in big, bold letters. Luckily, the name was highlighted, and he clicked on it. The link took him to another site called "They sure think up bright and sunny names for these things" Xander said to himself sarcastically, marveling at the nerve and anger these kids had.

The text on the page popped up, and Xander could tell at once that it was a multi-user site, where other people besides the creator could dedicate pages to their favourite troublemakers. The first thing on the page, above the text, was a picture of Laila. It looked like a license picture, because in it, you could see only her shoulders, neck, and head. Her smile was small but wry, and one of her eyebrows was raised. Next to it was another picture that looked just like it only this one was drawn by someone, and next to her face they had scrawled "_Laila Halliday_" with a loving little heart-shaped anarchy sign beneath. As Xander read into the text, he could see that more than half of it was insane, fan-boy raving. The word 'hot' was used more than once in most sentences, and words like AWESOME and AMAZING were tailed by unearthly amounts of exclamation points. But the third paragraph from the bottom was helpful. Xander read it aloud.

"_Laila is like, 19 or something now, totally young for her skill, and I heard she's already hacked over 20 databases. As if that wasn't kewl enough, she also deals computer parts, and she can get the best stuff. The thing that makes her totally WICKED though is the big snitch she pulled last year that was like, so incredibly SWEET!!!!!!!!! She hacked into the M and T Bank and not only stole half their moola but hacked up all the machines that make checks and made it so that they basically cussed out all the people who ordered them. Instead of saying like, 'write amount here', they say 'give me all your fucking money, bitch!'. LOL!!!!!!!!!" _Even Xander himself had to laugh at this. He scanned through the rest of the text, seeing nothing of real importance. He backtracked a few pages to the list of hackers in hopes of finding something on Nikolai. If Laila was indeed doing her share of the hacking, then he really needed to find out what Niko was up to, especially because it seemed he had a lot of power over her. And if Laila herself was dangerous, then Xander could only imagine what her master would be like.

The list of hackers was growing smaller, and Xander was ready to give up close to the end. But when he was nearly to the bottom, there was a much smaller list of five or six names with the title '_Greatest of All'_ over them. And sure enough, there was Nikolai's name, paired with the last name of Haleai. "Nikolai Haleai..." repeated Xander, his big brown eyes growing wide in anticipation for the information he was about to find out. But the second he clicked the link, the screen went black. "_Shit_!" he muttered, smacking the computer upside the monitor. His fingers were just about at the reboot button when he noticed text flowing out across the screen. "What the...?" Sitting back down, he read over the words.

_Hello Xander. How are you? _He jumped forward onto the keys and typed back;

_Who are you?_

_You know who I am. We haven't met, but obviously you know me._

_Nikolai? Nikolai Haleai?_

_Yes. Nice to meet you. _

_I'd rather meet you face to face, if you'd like to know._

_I already knew, and in a way you already have. But the point is that I have been tracking everything you've just done on the internet. _

_Oh really, what have I ? You checked out quite a few things before finally getting down to business. You read that page written by some crazy fan of Laila's, and you were just about to check out some things about me. Well, you'll be glad to know I've already hacked your computer. You can't do that anymore, your computer will now forbid you to open anything about me. _

_You are really a control freak, aren't you?_

_Yes, Xander, I am quite a control freak, but we all are, on the inside. Speaking of which, what exactly are you doing sneaking around my Laila? _

Your _Laila?! Excuse you, she has her own life. Stop being such a possessive bastard. _

_I can't, Xander, because we are so very close. And if you order me about one more time, let alone swear at me, then I will have to infect your computer with one of my NLS's. _

_One...what?_

_NLS. Stands for Nikolai's Little Servant. My viruses. I don't only have things designed for company funds, I do much more than that. Anyway, Xander, I didn't contact you just to have a little chat, I wanted to make you a deal. Well, it's more like an ultimatum. _

_I'm not gonna like this, am I?_

_It's doubtful. Here's the deal; you get your parts and get away, or..._

_Or what? _

_Well, I was waiting for you to say 'Of course I'll go away" but I know you're up to something much more and wouldn't want anything to get in your way. So I'll tell you the 'or' part. Stay away or I'll kill Yelena. _

I know it was a sucky way to end the chapter but it sounded cliffhanger-esque so I figured I'd stick it in there. Besides, I'm getting tired and want to stop writing. Next time, you can find out how Niko knows about Yelena and what Xander's going to do to stop it. Niko might also bring in some hacker friends, who are a force to deal with. If you would like to be one of those hacker friends and have a brief moment in the spotlight, then review me. I know how much people like reading stuff about themselves that they haven't written, so this is your chance. I'm not giving you guys very long, now that I'm in the mood to write. I've already got two people I'd like to write about (Arc, you're already one of them so if your reading this then don't do anything, although a regular review would be nice.) The other is my friend LRNEC who has requested (more like harped on me for weeks) to put him in the story. Yep.


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